MIDTERMS 2014: Ted Kennedy Jr. wins Connecticut state Senate race

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Ted Kennedy Jr. wins Connecticut state Senate race

1:55 p.m. ET: Democrat Ted Kennedy Jr. became the latest in his family to win political office Tuesday, defeating his Republican challenger in his bid for a Connecticut state Senate seat.

The Associated Press reported that Kennedy, 53, beat Republican Bruce Wilson Jr. for the open seat in Connecticut’s 12th District, where he has lived for years.

Kennedy is the son of the late longtime Massachusetts Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy chose to run for state office rather than run for his father's old Senate seat in Massachusetts, which had been the subject of speculation in 2012.

“I think state legislative bodies are where the action is in politics today,” he told the Associated Press. “Where Washington has been gridlocked, the state legislative bodies have been very active in passing legislation that impacts people’s lives.”

Obama to host meeting of congressional leaders Friday

10:00 p.m. ET: President Obama will host a group of bipartisan congressional leaders in the White House after the midterm elections, sources told Fox News.

Two congressional sources told Fox News Tuesday that the president is planning to host the meeting of the full congressional leadership Friday afternoon at the White House.

Expected to attend are Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Republican Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, Sen. John Thune, R-.D., House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

A White House official told Fox News the administration will have more details about the meeting later in the week.

Judge denies Crist request to extend voting hours in Florida county

8:55 p.m. ET: A judge has denied a request from the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist to extend voting hours in one Florida county.

Evelyn Perez-Verdoa, elections spokeswoman for the county, confirmed the judge's ruling to the Associated Press.

Crist's campaign had argued that issues at polling places have left many unable to cast a ballot in Broward County. The campaign said "several individual and systemic breakdowns" had affected voters.

Crist, the state's former Republican governor, is in a tight race against GOP incumbent Rick Scott.

Connecticut secretary of state extends voting at two polling places after issues

8:10 p.m. ET: Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill announced Tuesday night that voting at two polling precincts in the state had been extended until 8:30 p.m. because of issues with voter lists.

Hartford Superior Court Judge Carl Schuman ordered the extension after arguments from Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy's re-election campaign and the state Democratic party.

Schuman determined that voters at the two polling places in Hartford had been disenfranchised. According to a statement from Merrill, when the voters arrived in the early morning to vote they were told there were no voter lists at the polling places.

Merrill called the situation "unacceptable."

"It is unconscionable to our office that the steps were not taken in advance of voters arriving at the polling places this morning, leading some voters to be turned away from the polls and others to leave in frustration," Merrill said. "This should never happen in Connecticut or anywhere."

Schuman also asked Merrill to investigate why voting lists were not distributed to the polling places before the polls opened at 6:00 a.m.

Crist campaign files motion to extend voting hours in Florida county

7:30 p.m. ET: The campaign for the Democratic candidate for Florida governor has filed an emergency motion to extend voting hours in one Florida county, saying issues at polling places have left many unable to cast a ballot.

Charlie Crist's campaign filed a motion Tuesday night with a Florida state court requesting voting hours be extended in Broward County from 7:00 p.m.to 9:00 p.m.

The campaign said "several individual and systemic breakdowns" have caused issues for voters attempting to cast their ballots.

In one example, the campaign said, a polling place at an elementary school was offline for over an hour and a half Tuesday morning, which caused "major delays."

The campaign also said malfunctions with the machines that were checking in voters had led to widespread problems, and some voters gave up attempting to cast a ballot.

The campaign said that they made a similar request to the Broward County Supervisor of Elections but it was denied.

Crist, the state's former Republican governor, is trying to unseat GOP incumbent Rick Scott.

Voting irregularities reported in multiple states

6:00 p.m. ET: Voting irregularities have been reported in several states, with polls about to close.

In Connecticut -- where voters are choosing candidates for governor, Congress, the state legislature and other offices -- several polling places didn't receive printed ballots in time for the 6 a.m. start of voting.

The issue prompted Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy to ask a state judge to extend voting hours in Hartford, where the problem was reported.

Malloy said the problem caused him to vote about 35 minutes late and may have discouraged others from casting ballots. His Republican challenger, Tom Foley, said there's no legitimate reason to extend voting hours in the capital city. Problems also were reported in a few other towns including Wolcott, where one polling place ran low on ballots briefly.

Irregularities with voting machines, meanwhile, were detected in Virginia in places like Virginia Beach and Newport News. According to Republican Rep. Scott Rigell, the incumbent competing against Democrat Suzanne Patrick in the 2nd District, voting machines were switching electronic votes from Republican to Democrat.

"Because of a machine malfunction, we have had reports of nearly 40 different polling locations in which voters are attempting to vote for me, and it comes up as our opponent," Rigell said in a mass email sent to voters Tuesday afternoon.

"This disenfranchisement of voters strikes at the very heart of our republic. ... We are urging you to vote and check the summary page on your voting machine prior to casting your ballot."

Rigell included a video taken in Virginia Beach in which an electronic machine appears to select Patrick even though the voter taps the machine to select Rigell.

Representatives from the Virginia Department of Elections told Watchdog.org they are aware of the issue and said faulty touch-screen machines were removed immediately.

In a statement obtained by the Virginia-Pilot, the department said the problem appears to be with the AccuVote TSX Touch Screen voting machines and involves touch screen calibration.

Patrick's campaign, in contrast, said they had received "a very low and limited number" of complaints.

"In all cases, the problem was resolved quickly and the voter walked away satisfied that each had cast his or her ballot successfully," Patrick's campaign manager, Michelle Gajewski, said in a statement provided to the newspaper.

In South Dakota, officials announced first results won't be reported until 10 p.m. ET tonight because one county's polls opened an hour late.

Secretary of State Jason Gant posted a tweet announcing that results would be delayed an hour because polls in Shannon County did not open until 8 a.m.

Because state law required that polling locations stay open for 12 hours, statewide results won't be reported until later.

Kansas Republican pounces on Biden claim independent rival 'will be with us'

2:10 p.m. ET: Vice President Joe Biden touched off a Kansas firestorm this afternoon, claiming in a local radio interview that independent Senate candidate Greg Orman "will be with us" if elected -- a claim Orman's campaign denied, and one his Republican opponent quickly seized upon.

Orman has not yet indicated which party he'd caucus with in the Senate, but Biden's comment suggested he'd made up his mind.

"And, you know, we have a chance of picking up an independent who will be with us in the state of Kansas," Biden told WPLR.

Orman's opponent, Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, quickly seized upon Biden's claim,.

Roberts' campaign used Biden's voice in a robocall blitz to a million households, alerting voters that Biden revealed what Orman has stealthily refused to acknowledge all along: that he is a Democrat masquerading as an independent.

"This is a major voter alert," the recorded message begins. "Vice President Joe Biden admitted the Greg Orman will become a Democrat in the U.S. Senate, even though Orman has been denying it to Kansas voters. ... Vote for the only Republican in the race for U.S. Senate by 7 p.m. today. This is the last chance to stop the Obama-Reid agenda."

Orman's campaign, meanwhile, said, "Greg's never spoken to the vice president in his life."

"Greg is an Independent, and he's not going to Washington [to] represent the Democrats or the Republicans -- he's going to represent the people of Kansas," his campaign manager, Jim Jonas, said in a statement.

In the latest polling, Orman holds a very slight lead over Roberts in an increasingly tight race.

Biden went on to predict the Democrats will win Senate seats in Alaska, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Georgia.

Fox News' James Rosen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.